A time-to-digital converter (TDC) detects a temporal characteristic or a phase of a signal to be measured with respect to a reference clock, or between signals representing two temporal events, using a time difference measurement between for example two events. The resulting single signal represents the time (or phase) difference as a pulse with a width equaling the time interval between these events. A major limitation for time-to-digital converter (TDC), in particular flash TDCs, is that as the time difference approaches zero (Δt→0), the resulting pulse cannot be determined. This limitation is referred to as a dead zone or blind zone. In ordinary phase comparators, the dead zone results from the non-zero response times of the logic gates of the comparator, meaning that time differences smaller than these response times are not detected.